Coral Way Reopened After Tractor Trailer Collision Injures 5

(Source: CBS4) Tractor trailer and a car collide on Coral Way on Friday, Feb. 17, 2012.

WESTCHESTER (CBSMiami) – A serious accident on Coral Way temporarily shut the road down and sent five people to the hospital in the early morning hours of Friday.

According to police, a Honda Accord and a tractor trailer collided in the eastbound lanes of Coral Way at SW 84th Avenue just around 2:30 a.m. Police said the vehicles may have been traveling at a high rate of speed.

“There’s over 150 feet of skid marks which means at minimum these individuals could have been traveling 108 feet per second,” said Alvaro Zabaleta of Miami-Dade Police.

The tractor trailer flipped over and leaked more than a hundred gallons of diesel fuel.

Five people in the Accord aged 17 to 23 were rushed to Kendall Regional Medical Center. Two of the girls in the car were critically injured.

The family of the driver of the Accord, Alexandra Estrella, 23, said she was nearly killed in the accident and sustained massive trauma to the heart.

“We are waiting for a hope and a prayer now that she pulls through,” said Alexandra’s uncle, Richard Estrella.

Richard said Alexandra Estrella was driving with two cousins and two friends in the car after a night out at a club at the time of the accident.

Witnesses told police the Accord was racing with another car when it slammed into the 18-wheeler.

“Speed can kill,” Zabaleta said. “We have to girls that are fighting for their lives and it’s unfortunately a tragedy.”

Coral Way was shutdown from 87th Avenue to 82nd Avenue for much of the morning as crews worked to clean up the spilled diesel fuel. The road reopened before noon.